My one perfect Valentine's Day

I haven't spent a whole lot of time talking about my past. About how I was engaged once to a man 14 years my senior (JG) or my one perfect relationship that was a victim to bad timing (CH). So today I am going to talk about my one perfect Valentine's Day. Every Valentine's Day I get my hopes high thinking that this will be the one and I am always disappointed in the lack of romance, except for one day.

Valentine's fell on a Saturday that year and both JG and I had to work until five. (Backstory: We worked for the same retail company, he on a store level and me at corporate.) He left before I woke up and left me a little note on the bathroom mirror wishing me a happy day. I went to work as usual and about an hour after I got there here comes JG with a bunch of balloons, a dozen roses, a teddy bear, and a box of chocolates. I was ecstatic! Only a woman knows how special it is to get flowers at work and have all the girls a tiny bit jealous of you, so not only was I getting flowers at work but he was bringing them himself! None of the other girls got flowers that day, but I did share my chocolates. ;)

I got home from work that day and found another dozen roses on our kitchen counter and a card expressing his love for me. I had never felt so special or so loved EVER. I had no idea at that time that a guy could treat me so well. I had no idea that I even deserved such treatment. I knew that we were going out to dinner so I got ready for the night. I took a long time with my hair and makeup and wore his favorite little black dress. He came home and I gave him a card from me and the computer game he had been drooling over for weeks.

We went downtown and had dinner at the Broker. For those of you not in Denver, the Broker restaurant is in an old bank. You walk through the old vault door and sit in what used to be the private booths people would use to deal with their safety deposit boxes. It is a very romantic, very expensive place to eat. After dinner he took me on a horse and carriage ride through downtown. I was so happy and I didn't want the night to end. I spent the ride home snuggled up next to him, holding his hand, my heart so full of love I thought it might burst. Little did I know the night was far from over.

We got home and he asked me to wait in the living room for him. About fifteen minutes later he came and got me. He asked me to close my eyes and take his hand. He led me into the bathroom where he had a candle-lit bubble bath waiting for me. He had a path of rose petals that led from the bath into our bedroom and more rose petals surrounding the tub. We took a bath together and just held each other and kissed until the water was cold. He dried me off and took my hand, walked me down that path of roses and into our room. More candles, more rose petals on the bed, and a box for me. I opened the box and inside was a beautiful silk nightie. We made love and fell asleep in each other's arms. I was content for the first time in my life and I knew what it felt like to be loved, to be respected, to be cherished, and to belong to someone completely.

Even though things between JG and I would take a horrible turn (more on that another time) for that one day I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. That boys is what women truly want for Valentine's Day. It's not the flowers or the candy that make us feel special, it's you. That day wasn't about the presents to me as much as was about the time he spent trying to make me feel special. He could have brought me a single daisy and I would have been happy with that because I knew he was thinking about me. It's all about making the effort to make a person feel special and listening to what their heart says. He knew that I had never been romanced and he wanted to show me what that was like. I am grateful to JG for a lot of things and that day is definitely one of them.